Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard

The Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard was a cavalry squadron of Napoleon I's Garde Imperiale, first formed on 14 September 1799. The last known mamluk force, the Mamelukes entered the service of the French First Republic during the Egyptian Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars, and Napoleon Bonaparte bought 2,000 Mamelukes from Syrian merchants with the intention of forming a special detachment. On 14 September 1799, general Jean-Baptiste Kleber established a mounted company of Mamluk auxiliaries and captured Syrian Janissaries, and General Jacques-Francois Menou reorganized the company on 3 July 1800, forming 3 companies of 100 men each. In 1801, Jean Rapp organized a squadron of 250 Mamelukes at Marseilles, and the companies consisted of French officers and Greek, Egyptian, Georgian, and Turkish privates. After the 2 December 1805 Battle of Austerlitz, the size of the Mameluke squadron was increased, and they served the First French Empire faithfully. In 1815, the Bourbon Restoration banned foreigners from serving in the Imperial Guard, but Napoleon I raised two companies of Mamelukes during his Hundred Days campaign in Belgium. After the Second Bourbon Restoration, the small number of Mamelukes still in service became targets for the Second White Terror, with 18 of them being massacred in Marseilles before they could be returned to Egypt.